Rain

A Carolina wren used the suet as shelter as well as brunch.  I picked my five pimentos and need to decide what to do with them.  The male pine warbler showed up quite frequently.  So did a brown headed nuthatch.  The suet cage was crowded!  

During a lull, I checked on the Argionpe.  It was pumping the web like a child on a swing, possibly to shake the water off.  While I was watching the spider, a blue jay landed on the suet and called me names for being too close.  I also noticed a glass snail, on a leaf for a change. 

A molting brown thrasher struggled to get its remaining feathers in order.  A black swallowtail fluttered around the rue.  Wasps joined the bees on the mountain mint, working through the rain.  During a lull, I went swimming and rescued a spider with a load of spiderlings. 

A second beautiful day

In the late morning I decided to pick blueberries.  The rain had revived them and I got nearly two pints, but many were mushy so those went into jam.  I saw some sort of bug zipping between trees.  An osprey sailed overhead.   Then a tiger swallowtail landed on a dogwood leaf in the sun.  It's had a rough life - there were nips out of its wings and one tail was missing. 

After lunch, brown headed nuthatches arrived.  So did downy woodpeckers.  A blue dasher kept an eye on things while I attended Zoom meetings.  Only one turtle soaked up sun warmth. 

 When I finally got in the pool, the water was still high and cool.  I had hoped the sun would have more effect.  A spider mother-to-be took fright at me and dashed across the water clutching her pearl full of eggs.  I had to rescue her before she got sucked into the skimmer.  I also rescued a sidewalk tiger beetle, a little brown click beetle, and a big green June beetle.  Then, in the deep end, I found a young skink swimming for dear life.  So I carried it back to the shallows and took some pictures.  I saw a brown thrasher, but I had my hands full. 

After I got out and dripped for a while, I spied a leaf in the oak that wasn't a leaf.  It was the hummer that can't find the feeder.  A blue jay checked out the knothole next to the woodpecker holes, the same spot the nuthatch investigated earlier.  Meanwhile, K had picked figs because rain was in the forecast. Bees were very busy with the mountain mint but wasps were scarce. 

I sat outside in the twilight and saw a bat!  There was no moon as the waning crescent will rise in the early morning, and haze obscured the stars.  There weren't any fireflies either, just crickets stridulating. 

Wheelbug

In the morning, the pine warbler had a few happy moments with the suet.  Then a Carolina wren took over.  A beautiful day followed that seemed more like early June than early August.  The temperature barely touched 80.  I saw two sizable skinks but wasn't quick enough to get a picture. 

 A few leafcutter bees joined the honeybees on the mountain mint.  I do wonder whose hive I'm supporting.  A bumble-ish sort of bee preferred the butterfly milkweed.  The Argiope and the basilica spiders hadn't moved.  The digger wasps reappeared, both black and golden.  So did threadwaisted wasps. 

Between the rainwater and the cooler day, the pool no longer felt like bathwater.  A small wheelbug paddled genteelly in the water, but was happy to be rescued.  Several snails clung to the sides of the pool above the water. 

The oak limb that I speculated was dead had two big, recent woodpecker holes.  It will make quite a crash when it breaks and falls. 

Rain and fledglings

The low temperature and the wind combined with the rain to make a miserable, dank, chilly day for birds.  I think they needed lots of food to make up for the weather.  Fledgling bluebirds gathered around the suet.  One bird was soaking wet but others looked dry.  A downy woodpecker had to reassert ownership of the suet.  At least three brown headed nuthatches made repeat visits to both seeds and suet.  

A hummingbird could not seem to see its feeder.  Finally, it or another did find the larger, redder feeder that I had put out to try to get them retrained.  

A grumpy-looking Carolina wren worked on the suet in the rain.  A pine warbler followed.  Then a female red bellied woodpecker wanted some.  Meanwhile, chickadees, cardinals, titmice, and house finches ate sunflower seeds.  A brown thrasher stayed below.  Blue jays wanted barkbutter balls but I wasn't going to waste them in the rain.  

At lunch time, one fledgling bluebird got the hang of the suet cage, sharing with a wren.  But two others waited for Mama to bring them bites all of two feet away.  Nuthatches and the pine warbler also were willing to share the suet.  

After lunch, I checked on the hummer feeder to make sure the rain hadn't gotten in.  While I was there, I made sure the Argiope was OK.  It had made a very minimalist orb web.  Honeybees were busy with the mountain mint but native insects had better sense.  

By late afternoon the rain had slacked off though the humidity was so high it made little difference.  A blue jay decided that there wasn't going to be barkbutter and it might as well eat suet.  I think it was a young one as its black hood was more like gray.  A hummer went right to its feeder with no nonsense about former locations.  The wren was back and maybe the brown thrasher too.  

Gray

Sprinkles flirted with us all day and it was much cooler.  Before the showers started, K picked blueberries and I gathered figs.  A Carolina wren showed up early, then a female bluebird.  She was closely observed by a fledgling as she ate suet.  The wren and a titmouse tried to share the suet, but I think that made it swing too much.  Then a brown headed nuthatch went after the suet, followed by a downy woodpecker.  The pine warbler was back for more.  And a female red bellied woodpecker succumbed to the lure of suet. 

A male ruby throat looked for the hummer feeder where it used to be then gave up.  Later a female found it.  

Honeybees thronged the mountain mint but some of the natives stayed away.  I saw bumble and carpenter and leafcutter bees, scoliid wasps and digger wasps.  The Argiope spider seemed to be doing well between the hibiscus and the rue.  A basilica spider was nearby.  The fungus by the oak tree was massive.  

Hungry birds & bees

A blue jay and a brown thrasher discussed the empty state of the barkbutter ball dish.  A male pine warbler went for suet instead.  Then a female bluebird took over. The brown headed nuthatches seemed to be everywhere because they liked all the different foods.  Of course a downy woodpecker had to assert ownership. 

The blue jays came back after I refilled the dish.  I think they may have been fledglings.  I found a defunct cicada floating.  An osprey alerted me with its musical cries.  I also heard and glimpsed a swallow.  Honeybees were the most common insect on the mountain mint but I also saw a great black wasp, lots of golden digger wasps and scoliid wasps, bumble, carpenter, leafcutter, and other bees.

Rainy day

The rain ended around 4pm but the air was stiflingly humid, and full of mosquitoes.  

I learned from a friend's post that a wasp I've seen is called a  "horse guard" Stictia carolina because it eats greenheads Tabanus fulvulus!